The Nigerian Exchange (NGX) closed the week on a subdued note, as trading activity declined across key metrics due to a shortened trading week.
The market was open for only four days following the Federal Government’s declaration of Friday, April 18, and Monday, April 21, as public holidays to commemorate the Easter celebration.
A total of 1.525 billion shares valued at N43.006bn were traded in 51,156 deals during the week, representing a decrease from the previous week’s 2.094 billion shares worth N52.97bn exchanged in 64,612 deals.
The decline in trading volume and value reflected a more cautious approach by investors, likely influenced by the shorter trading window and market sentiment.
The NGX All-Share Index (ASI) and Market Capitalization both recorded modest losses, declining by 0.32 per cent to close at 104,233.81 points and N65.499trn respectively.
This downward movement was mirrored by most of the market indices, which closed the week in negative territory. However, a few indices managed to post gains.
These included the NGX Premium, Pension, MERI Growth, Consumer Goods, Oil & Gas, Lotus II, Growth, Sovereign Bond, and Pension Broad indices, which recorded slight to moderate improvements over the period. Meanwhile, the NGX ASeM and NGX Commodity indices closed flat, showing no change from the previous week.
Market breadth improved slightly as 31 equities recorded price gains, compared to 27 gainers in the preceding week. The number of decliners decreased to 44 from the previous week’s 56, indicating a slight easing in sell-side pressure.
A total of 72 equities remained unchanged in price, up from 64 in the previous week, suggesting that a larger portion of the market was in a consolidation phase.
In terms of sectoral contribution, the Financial Services industry once again led trading activity by volume and value.
It accounted for 1.122 billion shares valued at N24.015bn traded in 28,818 deals. This represented 73.56 per cent of the total equity turnover volume and 55.84 per cent of the total value.
The Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector followed, with 101.252 million shares worth N4.819bn exchanged in 2,541 deals.
The Services sector ranked third, with a turnover of 99.776 million shares valued at N1.230bn in 3,063 deals.
Access Holdings Plc, Fidelity Bank Plc, and Universal Insurance Plc emerged as the three most traded equities by volume. Combined, they accounted for a turnover of 448.105 million shares worth N6.730bn in 6,481 deals.
Their activity represented 29.39 per cent of the total equity turnover volume and 15.65 per cent of the market’s total value for the week.
Despite the market’s overall decline, the presence of select sectoral gains and increased stability in price movement suggests a cautiously optimistic outlook among investors as the market resumes a full trading week ahead.
